Narratives of adhesion vs. separation

Case studies of contested sovereignty in Europe

Efforts to achieve autonomy have certainly existed since the time when political communities first emerged. The questions of who belongs to whom, who does not belong to whom, who sees themselves as something independent and who wants to belong to something bigger are probably some of the timeless fundamental historical questions and one of the central reasons for political conflicts and wars.

The sovereign nation state of modern times seems to be a concept that has pacified many of these conflicts, but at the same time has also triggered many new conflicts. Even in Europe, whose nation-state borders seem so clearly defined, there are still aspirations for autonomy and secessionist conflicts, some of which have lasted for a long time – with phases of varying intensity. These are often so-called “frozen conflicts”, which remain quiet for a long time but can erupt at any time, at least latently. This applies to all three case studies that were examined comparatively in this workshop: Northern Ireland, Catalonia and Eastern Ukraine. Conflicts of this kind repeatedly make us aware of how fragile political territories, geographical borders and, most fundamentally, people’s sense of belonging are. The case studies on the three conflicts mentioned were examined from the analytical perspective of adhesion vs. separation. On the first day of the workshop, the three conflicts were systematically examined in individual panels. In the case of the Catalonia conflict, it was shown that this is a very multicultural and inclusive separatist movement. In debating the Northern Ireland conflict, the new tensions triggered by Brexit were examined in particular. With regard to Ukraine, the main focus was on strategic narratives and the topic of identity formation. On the second day of the workshop, an attempt was made to formulate overarching findings and to identify similarities and differences between the three case studies discussed. A fundamental pattern seems to be that conflicts shape identities and not the other way around. Furthermore, it is important to distinguish between narratives and mere rhetorical frames. Finally, the underlying dimensions of conflicts were divided into social and human factors such as psychology, politics, religion and language on the one hand and hard constraints such as geography and economics on the other. Various core theses and statements from the workshop participants, who came from Bristol, London, Dublin, Glasgow, Manchester, Cardiff, Barcelona and Bern, were recorded on video.

Programme

Participants